Meavy is a small village,civil parish and formermanor in the English county ofDevon. Meavy forms part of the district ofWest Devon. It lies a mile or so east ofYelverton. TheRiver Meavy runs near the village. For administrative purposes the parish is grouped with the parishes ofSheepstor andWalkhampton to formBurrator Parish Council,[1] and for electoral purposes it is grouped with the same two parishes to form BurratorWard.[2]
In 2010, Meavy was one of the filming locations for theSteven Spielberg filmWar Horse.
Theparish church of St Peter is at least partlyNorman with additions of the 13th and 15th centuries. There is areredos of 1884 byJ.D. Sedding and a foliated churchyard cross. The oak tree on the village green in front of the churchyard wall is known as the Meavy Oak and was described byJohn Claudius Loudon in hisArboretum of 1838; the tree may be over 900 years old. Next to the church is an unremarkable manor house of the Drake family.[3]
The Royal Oak Inn dates to the late 15th century, and is owned by thecivil parish ofBurrator, with the profits being used by the parish council to fund projects within the parish. Some of the seating consists ofpews formerly located in the nearby church.
The manor of Meavy (alias Meavy Church, Mewy, etc.) inRoborough Hundred was held in 1086 at the time ofDomesday Book byRobert le Bastard,[5] or byJuhel de Totnes.[6] Later it was held by thede Meavy family from the reign of Kings Henry III to Richard II. Their feudaloverlord was the de Pomeray family,feudal barons of Berry Pomeroy.[7] It was later held by the Milliton family, whose armorials were:Gules, a chevron argent between three millets hauriant or,[8] where "millets" aremullet fish.[9] Richard IV Strode (d.1552) ofNewnham, about 6 miles south, married Agnes Milliton, daughter of John Milliton of Meavy.[10] Meavy was later one of the residences of SirWilliam IV Strode (1562–1637),[11] and later became the seat of the latter's 2nd sonWilliam Strode (1594-1645), MP.[12] A junior branch of the Crymes family of Crapstone,[13]Buckland Monachorum, was resident in the parish of Meavy.[14]Risdon: "The manor of Buckland was bought by one Grimes, of London, who built a house upon the same, which descends to his posterity, and is now inherited by that name".[15] Meavy was purchased bySir Francis Drake, 3rd Baronet (1642–1718), ofBuckland Abbey in the parish ofBuckland Monachorum, who sometimes resided at themanor house west of St Peter's Church, in which survives the "Drake Aisle" or manorial chapel. The external stonework is inscribed with the date "1705" and the "Drake star" from his coat of arms.[16] His mother was Susan Crimes, a daughter of William Crimes (or Grimes), of Buckland Crimes and a sister of Elizeus Crimes.[17]
50°29′08″N4°03′24″W / 50.48552°N 4.05656°W /50.48552; -4.05656
